Gumperz J.J. Hindi Reader. Volume I

Center for South Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley, California, 1960. - 207 p.John Gumperz developed a new way of looking at sociolinguistics with Dell Hymes, also a scholar of sociolinguistics. Their contribution was a new method called the "ethnography of communication. " Gumperz' own approach has been called Interactional sociolinguistics.
Sociolinguistics analyzes variation in discourse, within a particular speech community, and studies how that variation affects the unfolding of meaning in interaction and correlates with the social order of the community.
"The universe is the speech community: Any human aggregate characterized by regular and frequent interaction by means of a shared body of verbal signs and set off from similar aggregates by significant differences in language use. " (J.J. Gumperz)